HBO Now: Forget Game of Thrones. Here’s Why You Need It.

Season 5 of Game of Thrones might be starting the weekend of April 12, 2015, which is just 5 days after HBO Now was launched, but get those apps downloaded people. You are going to love your movie access.

First of all, HBO Now isn’t a live TV service. It’s more like Netflix than it is a cable channel. You can start every movie that is on the network on-demand. They’re sorted out by helpful categories like you’ll get at the Redbox machine. You’ve got comedy, sports, documentaries, and even Bill Maher on demand. This means you won’t have to worry about delays in coverage like on Sling TV when demand crushes the bandwidth that is available – like when Game of Thrones launches.

If you sign up now to try HBO Now, you can get 30 days of HBO access for free. Then you’ll get to explore some of these additional perks.

#1. Get the Premiere Movie For the Next 4 Weeks. HBO has a new movie that premieres on the network every week. For the next month, you’ll get to see the new movie for free. Maybe you already paid the $1.50 at the Redbox for it, but let’s repeat it: it’s free.

#2. You Can Catch Up On All Your Shows. Amazon Prime has a number of the older HBO shows available for streaming, but they don’t have all of them. Many of the currently airing shows aren’t online anywhere but on HBO. If you’ve never seen Game of Thrones, then now is your time to get yourself caught up on the action.

#3. You Get To Implement Settings. There are ratings restrictions that can be set in HBO Now which allows parents to set a maximum allowable rating. It ranges from G to NC-17 for movies and TV-Y to TV-MA for television shows. Just set a 4 digit PIN [maybe not your debit card PIN that the kids see] and then set the ratings level.

#4. You’ve Got Data Options. You can set HBO Now to only stream over a wi-fi signal if you’re using a mobile device for it. There is also a setting to warn users about cellular playback so that data charges don’t spike unexpectedly.

#5. You Can Still Watch Some of the Best of HBO. If you’ve never seen Band of Brothers yet, then you can stream it now for 30 free days on HBO Now. Curb Your Enthusiasm is available for streaming. Take the opportunity to stream Flight of the Concords and you won’t regret it.

It is important to note that HBO Now and HBO Go are two different services. You won’t get to stream your 30 free days of HBO Now on TV playback devices like the Amazon Fire TV stick. The cost of HBO Now is also the same at $15 per month as it is through most cable and satellite providers, so there really is no cost savings available beyond the fact that you can subscribe to HBO while still keeping the cord cut.

Is HBO Now worth $15 per month? The verdict on that is still out. In the meantime, we’ve watched Rio 2, Garfield’s Tale of 2 Kitties, some boxing replays, and Season 4 of Game of Thrones for free. For now, that is value that is difficult to ignore.